


My Favorite Distraction

by notenoughcoffee



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 06:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughcoffee/pseuds/notenoughcoffee
Summary: Prompt: "You're my favorite distraction."Katherine is stuck on the "what-ifs" and looks to Catherine for comfort.





	My Favorite Distraction

Parr was tugged out of her reverie by a gentle knocking on her door. She knew exactly who was stood on the other side by the timidity in the gesture. Setting her book down, she rose from her desk and opened the door to reveal Katherine Howard on the other side. 

The girl was chewing her lip, and she had one arm wrapped tightly around her middle clutching her elbow. Her shoulders were hunched. Everything about the way she was standing at the door made her look far younger than she actually was. 

“Hey, Kat. What’s going on?” Parr was a little concerned at the apprehensive look on Katherine’s face. She kept her tone light and jovial, afraid anything less would send her running.

“Sorry. I know you’re busy. I don’t want to distract you from your work.”

“You’re my favorite distraction,” Parr assured her. Smiling brightly, she motioned for Katherine to enter the room and closed the door softly behind her. “Take a seat anywhere you would like,” she told her after seeing her eyeing the room uncomfortably.

Katherine settled on the foot of the bed while Parr repositioned the chair she had been in before directly across from the bed and sat back down. Parr watched as Katherine fidgeted nervously picking at the skin around her nails, and still chewing on her bottom lip. She expected the skin to break at any moment as the girl continued to worry at it.

“Do you ever,” Katherine started but trailed off, looking anywhere but in Parr’s direction.

Parr gave her a few moments to work up her courage, but when it became obvious that she wasn’t going to continue, she offered, “Do I ever what, love?”

Katherine’s restless hands dropped into her lap. “Do you ever wish things could be different?”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know. Different then? Different now?” Her lip was between her teeth again, and when she finally made eye contact with Parr, tears brimmed dangerously close to spilling over.

“What’s bothering you? Has something happened?” Parr wanted to reach out and wrap her arms around her, but feared that it would provoke the tears further.

“Nothing’s happened. Just,” she sniffed loudly.  “What if I hadn’t made so many mistakes? What if I hadn’t been so stupid?” She rubbed at her eyes before she pressed her knuckles into them to staunch the flow that had started despite Parr’s restraint.

Parr let Katherine work through several steadying breaths and waited until her hands returned to her lap before she moved next to her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and ran her fingers through her long, pink tendrils of hair. She held her for a while, not acknowledging the shuddering breaths that evidenced her emotions. “We can’t change what has happened to us, love. Not that you could have controlled what had happened to you or predicted the outcome.”

“I know that,” she croaked. “I just wish it had been different.”

“If it had been, we wouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t need the ‘all events in our lives lead us to this moment’ speech,” she mumbled, her voice  laden with frustration. “I’m not explaining myself well.”

“I get it though. You’re stuck on the ‘what-ifs.’”

“Something like that, yeah,” she confirmed, leaning her head onto Parr’s shoulder. 

They stayed just like that until Parr felt Katherine begin to nod off. “You said something about things being different now too. What’s bothering you now?” She nudged her shoulder to jostle Katherine a bit more into wakefulness. 

She lifted her head from Parr’s shoulder. “Anne ate all the biscuits,” she deadpanned.

Parr blinked at her before bursting out into laughter so contagious that Katherine couldn’t help but follow suit. 

  
  



End file.
